1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing solution, a capsule structure, a fixing method, a fixing device and an image forming apparatus, and, in particular, to a fixing solution, a capsule structure, a fixing method, a fixing device and an image forming apparatus, applying a fixing solution which is provided to toner so as to cause the toner to dissolve or swell, for fixing it to a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus applied in a printer, a facsimile apparatus, a copier or such records an image such as characters, symbols or such on a recording medium such as paper, cloth, OHP sheet or such, based on given image information.
There are various types of such recording apparatuses. Thereamong, an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus has been widely applied for an office use since a high definition image can be rapidly recorded on ordinary paper thereby. For this type of image forming apparatus, a thermal fixing type has spread widely for fixing an image to a recording medium in terms of a fixing speed, a fixing image quality and so forth. According to the thermal fixing type, a toner on a recording medium is heated, melted and pressed, for fixing it to the recording medium. However, when the thermal fixing type is applied in the electrophotographic type of image forming apparatus, more than half of power consumption is consumed for heating a toner. In an environmental view point, a fixing device requiring a reduced power consumption is demanded.
Therefor, a wet-type fixing method of fixing a toner in such a manner that the toner is dissolved or swelled by a fixing solution, and is dried, has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 59-119364, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-45830, Japanese Patent No. 3290513 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2000-122391, disclosing image forming apparatuses applying the wet-type fixing method). According to this method, heating processing required in the above-mentioned thermal fixing type, for dissolving a toner, is not required. Accordingly, this method is superior in a power saving viewpoint since a power consumption can be reduced. Further, since a worming up time, required in the thermal fixing type, is not required in the wet-type fixing method, quick starting is made possible.
However, in the wet-type fixing method, when a fixing substance dissolving or swelling a toner is not uniformly included in a fixing solution, unevenness occurs in a contacting state between the toner and the fixing substance, penetration of the fixing substance in the toner delays, and thus, a fixing speed may degrade. Further, the fixing substance for dissolving or swelling a toner or a detergent is applied to mix the fixing substance in the fixing solution, odor may be generated therefrom. Accordingly, when fixing processing in this fixing method is carried out for a large quantity of printed matters, a user may have an unpleasant feeling thereby. As a result, an image forming apparatus applying the wet-type fixing method may not be suitable to be set in an office, a house or such, in which humans stay.